Lost in the Shuffle on the Road to Mediocrity

Yeah its slow and I've been reading a lot about reaching .500 here and on the news sites and other venues. So I'd like to toss out my thoughts (so I can make room for other thoughts) on what hasn't been in the overall discussion about next season.

Rodney Stuckey: He hasn't been as lost in the shuffle as much as Maxiell has been but I believe he is THE factor to making .500 or not. He was written off last year as the same ol' tantalizing star who keeps plummeting back to earth. Watching last season, he had several injuries that affected his play. Did he super-collide too much? Certainly; and that's not a result of a groin pull either. But the whole reason I got into writing this section is to talk about Stuckey's stop and pop development. That is a bad-ass weapon. He has the quickness to get to the hoop, only anyone with even a casual interest in the NBA will figure out what he's going to do. Mix it up with a drive - pull up and its all kinds of goodness. He can pass like a point guard which is why Dumars mistook him for a real PG. This would assume a decent mid range game since bricking your pull up J puts us back in the plummet back to earth re-run. And it scambles defenses because WTF? Stuckey didn't go to the basket? Where the F* am I supposed to go now on defense? I'll just let Villanueva grab that rebound. wait did Chuck just grab a board? How did it hit the floor before he bothered to get it? What am I doing? Oh well, run it back.

Jason Maxiell: Ok maternity ward administrators, its ok to stop carding visitors at the door because Jason is on a diet. What we took for baby eating was merely the surprise in a king cake. Most of the attention has been on CV and Daye playing the stretch 4 (in Daye's case its a stretch that he can play the 4. ba-da-boom! I'm here all week outside the comedy club out back by the recycling bins folks) with an occasional article on Monroe sliding over to the 4 spot as well. Really clogging up the position is Maxiell. This guy is ineffective with less than 20+ minutes a game so he's not someone you can throw in there to eat an occasional baby. He has to play, get in a rhythm and then start hoovering up little children because he averages more highlights than rebounds. The problem with this is that we do not have a clear cut hierarchy and unless Daye is replaced by bizarro-Daye and that lack of consistency has hamstrung this team big time. Add to that Jerebko and its a massive clustercuss that needs to be sorted out. I think Maxiell's expiring is more valuable than Daye's rookie salary but who knows really.

Jonas J and the Enigmatic Maybes: The team is in an awkward position where Jonas (and arguably Daye and Singler) would be better off if Prince was traded but the team (arguably as well) would be worse off. My casual internet fan radar picks up Tay's defensive lapses, his ball stopping backdown into 3 defenders and a general lack of overall effectiveness. But I'm just a casual but obsessed fan with a proclivity to vomit walls of text. Still, Jerebko, Singler, Daye, Middleton and Maggette are all weeds growing in the cracks of Tayshaun's concrete jungle of veteran leadership. The point is, we've collected an overabundance of sub-reserve calibre talent and have become over-enamoured with them. Maybe its time for Gores to establish a catch and release program so Dumars can hook all the fringe talent he wants and has to let them go in some form or another - maybe for bragging rights or fan angst. Most teams have 7-8 guys and the rest. We have 4 guys and the rest. I like those guys at the end of the talent pool a lot but theres too much of it. I can't decide if I want Middleton to beat out Daye for 2 minutes of garbage time every 5 games or if I want to stick with my boy Daye who may or may not step out of bounds before launching an airball. Maybe I want to champion Maggette who has the skillset to do more than wear a suit. The travesty in all this is Ben Wallace is on the outs unless Dumars swings a trade. Maybe Joe can get 2 more 2nd rounders and draft another pair of small forwards.

IMO:...the 3 guys that Slip mainly mentions (Stuckey, Daye, JMax) just might be the 3 most irrelevant guys on the roster. I just can't see the Pistons hanging their hopes one any one of these dudes to play an important role in ascending back to the upper echelon of NBA teams.

I think everyone playing well is essential to how we do. Stuckey can be the difference between being .500 or 10 games under. We don't have a bonafide 2 on the roster after him.

I have a soft spot for Max. I don't know if he didn't get enough minutes, or he just never had any "Corliss" in him.

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I agree that Stuckey can be a gu that can help your tem get to .500.
...I don't think that he's a guy that can help you team get to .700 though.

If you could take Corliss' skill and combine it with Max's atheltic abilities, you'd have yourself one heck of a player.
...of late, the Pistons have been loaded with "pairs of guys" that if you combined them, they'd be all-stars.

I agree that Stuckey can be a gu that can help your tem get to .500.
...I don't think that he's a guy that can help you team get to .700 though.

If you could take Corliss' skill and combine it with Max's atheltic abilities, you'd have yourself one heck of a player.
...of late, the Pistons have been loaded with "pairs of guys" that if you combined them, they'd be all-stars.

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This "Ben Wallace" role might be great for Max though. They have a lot of unrefined size that will not do the little things well and he might be able to make a great impact without having to play huge minutes with his physicality.

The point is, we've collected an overabundance of sub-reserve calibre talent and have become over-enamoured with them. Maybe its time for Gores to establish a catch and release program so Dumars can hook all the fringe talent he wants and has to let them go in some form or another - maybe for bragging rights or fan angst. Most teams have 7-8 guys and the rest. We have 4 guys and the rest. I like those guys at the end of the talent pool a lot but theres too much of it.

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This.........to me..........explains the plight of the Pistons perfectly.........

Stuckey is not that bad, mins were kind of down last season but overall he has established himself as a decent 15-18 PPG kind of guy. He will get a little better as his long range game improves. I think overall he is about as good as he is going to get though.

Maxiell's biggest contribution this year is going to be making Drummond and Slava earn their minutes. He's a nice guy with a lot of heart, but just is not big enough. I still hope that he gets a steady dose of minutes. I'd rather see him on the court than bucket. Unfortunately, he probably won't be paired up with Slava or Drummond as all three are defensive players with limited offensive potential (at least for now). So you'd have to throw in JJ or *shudder* CV in with them.

At the end of the day, Maxiell's minutes will be directly linked to how well Slava adjusts to the NBA game.

Stuckey is not that bad, mins were kind of down last season but overall he has established himself as a decent 15-18 PPG kind of guy. He will get a little better as his long range game improves. I think overall he is about as good as he is going to get though.

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Another proportional aspect: as Stuckey's PPG increases and the long tail of working with Knight might increase the loss column.

Maxiell's biggest contribution this year is going to be making Drummond and Slava earn their minutes. He's a nice guy with a lot of heart, but just is not big enough. I still hope that he gets a steady dose of minutes. I'd rather see him on the court than bucket. Unfortunately, he probably won't be paired up with Slava or Drummond as all three are defensive players with limited offensive potential (at least for now). So you'd have to throw in JJ or *shudder* CV in with them.

At the end of the day, Maxiell's minutes will be directly linked to how well Slava adjusts to the NBA game.

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On my cheat sheet, the numbers for wins will not involve those active minutes together. Containment principals are selective providing you have hegemony that opposes weak infrastructure. The Pistons on the receiving end are marginally strong. On the offensive end, they are not balanced in proportion to youthful experience. All may cringe at Tay and CV's role playing, but, they can produce...where it counts. This counter-balances the lack of certain interactive power-energy grids of PR wishful thinking.

that's not fair. Maxiell always gives 100%; it's not his fault that JoeD overpaid him while he was also unable to get any decent big besides Monroe.

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Does he give 100%?
He plays hard in games but has he added ANYTHING to his game since coming into the league?
I think that he has more talent than he's shown. He should be better than 6 pts, 5 boards and a block per game.

It's going to be hard for Joe but he has to somehow find a way to NOT re-sign Maxiel next season.

Does he give 100%?
He plays hard in games but has he added ANYTHING to his game since coming into the league?
I think that he has more talent than he's shown. He should be better than 6 pts, 5 boards and a block per game.

It's going to be hard for Joe but he has to somehow find a way to NOT re-sign Maxiel next season.